


A little girl finds her way home

by Pearlislove



Category: Doctor Who (1963), Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Doctor/Companion Friendship, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Male-Female Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-12
Updated: 2018-08-12
Packaged: 2019-06-26 07:25:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,992
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15658530
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pearlislove/pseuds/Pearlislove
Summary: Dodo Chaplet finds her way back to The Doctor at long last.





	A little girl finds her way home

**Author's Note:**

> Because I got a vague obsession woth Dodo Chaplet

The first time Bill noticed her, she didn't think anything of it. An old woman, maybe in her mid-seventies, sitting on a bench in the park.   
  
Nothing peculiar about that, not particularly. Old ladies loved to sit on benches, it was a universally acknowledged fact of life.   
  
But as time passed, Bill started noticing that she was always there. The Doctor and her had a habit of taking a walk through the park every Monday afternoon, and every Monday afternoon that old woman would be sitting there on her bench.   
  
Sometimes, she was accompanied by a younger woman. The mysterious companion was in her forties, maybe early fifties, with copper skin and dark hair. The two of them  would be sharing a bag of sandwiches or talking in hushed voices. The way they talked and smiled and laughed, it almost appear as though they were mother and daughter, despite the fact they held little resemblance in appearance.   
  
Another thing that Bill noticed was that every time The Doctor walked past, the woman looked after him. Big, dark eyes filled with sadness followed them as they passed, lingering on their backs as they disappeared.   
  
It made Bill wonder who she might be, and if she knew The Doctor.    
  
One day, Bill decided to circle back after their walk. While The Doctor kept walking back to the University, Bill turned to walk back the way she came, praying the mysterious woman would still be there when she came to the bench. She  _ needed _ to know who she was.   
  
That day had happened to be one of the days when the Egyptian girl had been sitting next to the older woman, the two of them eating up a shared lunch, but when Bill comes to the bench the woman is alone.   
  
"Hi, I'm Bill Potts." Bill stretch out a hand, smiling her kindest smile as the woman looked up at her.   
  
"Dorothea Chaplet. But Dodo is fine." The woman smiles, too, taking Bill's hand in hers and shaking it. "Where have you got the old gentleman?" Dodo asked.   
  
"The Doctor?" Bill questioned. "He went back to the University. He works there, you see." She explained, still smiling happily.

 

Dodo, however, didn’t seem as happy.   
  
Hearing what Bill said, the happiness seems to leave the woman's features, her eyes filling with a deep, dark sadness instead. The same look she had given The Doctor every Monday when he walked by her in the park, she was now directing straight at Bill. "So it really is him, then. The Doctor?"  She asked finally, her voice quivering and breaking as she spoke.    
  
"Yes. It's what he call himself, anyway. Got a Police Box called the TARDIS. You know him?" Bill shrugged, trying to take the revelation with ease and not be affected by the sudden sadness lacing the conversation. Somehow, she had almost suspected it, that the woman knew him. It was in the way the Dodo always looked at The Doctor - Bill was there in the background, but she was never the focus of her gaze. That attention belongs solely to The Doctor.   
  
"I traveled with him, once. In the 60s. Ran away from home to do it, too, but it was the best decision I ever took." This time Sodo smiles, but she still looks as though she wants to cry. "Have you seen my daughter? She likes to meet me in the park for lunch, since I'm always here on Mondays anyway." Abruptly, Dodo broke eye contact with Bill, changing the subject as she glanced out at the park surrounding them.   
  
"Yeah, I've seen her. She's there sometimes when you sit and watch us walk by. Your daughter is really beautiful." Bill admitted honestly, her little gay heart soaring just slightly at the thought of the beautiful woman Dodo called her daughter. Having seen her before, it was obvious to Bill that she was of Egyptian origin with almond shaped eyes, copper skin and long, dark hair, and though her mother held none of these qualities, Bill could only assume her father did. "What is her name?" She asked kindly, smiling at the other woman.   
  
"Amunet, after the Egyptian goddesses and wife of the creator god Amun." Dodo shook her head. "I'm not Egyptian, but perhaps her father was. If such a country existed in the alternate Universe where I met him..."   
  
"You met her father in an alternate Universe?" Bill echoed, suddenly intrigued. "While you were traveling with The Doctor?" The second realisation hit her hard, harshly reminding her that the only way she could have ended up in an alternate Universe was with the help of The Doctor.   
  
Dodo nodded. "Yes. Exactly. Twenty years old and none the wiser, I got myself pregnant with a man from an alternate Timeline that never came to be... and I know I can tell you that because I know you've traveled with him too and know such a thing could happen" Dodo laughed, but the laughter is hollow, and she looks sad. "I never told The Doctor, though. I simply fled the TARDIS as soon as I could and never turned back. It can’t imagine what The Doctor thought of it all.”

 

“I’m sure he understood.” Bill said, trying to be comforting. She could only imagine how horrible such a situation had to be. “The Doctor seems like the kind of person who knows all your secrets. Who find out about all of them no matter how hard you try not to let them out. And apparently, so do you...how come you even knew about him?” Bill asked, suddenly realizing that Dodo shouldn’t even have known The Doctor was The Doctor in the first place, considering he had been posing as a teacher for some fifty years now.

 

“I didn’t. I mean, he had another face last I saw him, so I couldn't have recognized his appearance.” Dodo replied sweetly. “But I have lived here a long time now, since Amunet was a little child. I’ve heard the talk about the odd professor with the old-fashion police box in his office. I’ve heard stories of how no one knows what he teach or when he got the job. Some even says he’d been there since the school was founded, even though it’s impossible. And that, is how I knew I was hearing about The Doctor.”

 

“But if you know him, why have you never said hi? I’ve seen you watching him. You sit here ever Monday afternoon, spying on him as he walks by, but you’ve never even said hi.” Bill said, still trying to wrap her head around the strange experience that was talking to an old companion of The Doctor. She always imagined they’d be young men and women, like her, but it never hit her with how old The Doctor was, many of his earlier companions might be old or dead.   
  


“The Doctor wouldn’t want to see me again” Dodo said quickly, her sweet demeanor disappearing and being replaced by a cold, hard tone of voice. “I fled from The Doctor, Bill. I ran away without as much a goodbye. He must have thought I hated him…” She paused, chewing on her lip. With the back of a hand, she wiped away a few stray tears. “And even if he doesn’t, what will I tell him? He can’t know about Amunet. He’ll think I was so stupid, and that I should’ve known better.”

 

Listening to Dodo expressing her fears, Bill wanted to protest. She knew The Doctor wasn’t anything like Dodo made him out to be - He wouldn’t think she was stupid or tell her she should have known better. He was kind and compassionate and Bill knew, oh she knew The Doctor would understand it.

 

But before Bill speak a word of all this, someone else spoke first.

 

“I don’t believe I’ve ever called you stupid, Dodo. If you hold such believes, they are solely your own.” From around the corner, The Doctor appeared, grinning madly. There was a twinkle in his eyes and Bill had never seen anything like it. Hanging onto his arm was none other than Amunet, nodding at Dodo and Bill in simple greeting. 

 

“This man told me all about your travels, mum. Can’t say I really believed him until he showed me the phone box, though.” Amunet smiled an almost infatuated smile, and gave The Doctor a long, loving look.

 

“You showed her the TARDIS?! Doctor!” Dodo was shocked, but she didn’t seem to be able to decide if it was because she felt  offended or happy. Somehow, both seemed possible. 

 

In her mind, Dodo had always imagined that she was protecting her daughter from The Doctor. Keeping her away from something bad, a curse that would do nothing but fill her life with pain and regret. 

 

Now, the curse had come true and The Doctor was standing by her feet looking younger than when she had left him, old and sick and dying, all those years ago.

 

“Well, I had to convince her her father was from an alternate universe somehow, didn’t I?” The Doctor replied, smiling smugly.

 

“Oh god. You know. How long...how long have you known?” Dodo felt embarrassed and terrified and scared. With one revelation stacking on top of another, it quickly felt as though it was becoming too much for her. Trying to keep the panic at bay, she took a few shallow, gasping breath. “I didn’t tell you. I didn’t tell anyone, not ever. Not even Polly and Ben. They came back and I was pregnant and they just assumed it happened while they were gone, so I let them.” She cried, all but sobbing as she finally let out the truth of something which had haunted her for so many years.

 

“Oh mum!” Standing beside The Doctor, Amunet simply couldn’t keep quiet. Though she was no stranger to the fact that her mother had had struggled with her mental health since a long time, she had never before had a full picture of all that had happened to her mother before she was born and that had created the issues she’d witnessed. And now that she did, it broke her heart. “You didn’t tell anyone? Nothing it all? You just...just let them assume whatever they wanted?” Tearful, Amunet sat down to her mother, hugging her tight.

 

“She told  _ someone _ .” The Doctor interrupted, softly adding on to the conversation. “My very first companions, Ian and Barbara Chesterton. You told them the truth, and when I met them in my seventh body they passed it on to me.” The Doctor smiled his kindest smile. “I’m proud of you Dodo. It hurt when you left without saying goodbye, but we’ve both grown up since then, and today I am happy to say it. I am proud of you Dodo.”

 

Beaming, The Doctor walked up to Dodo, offering her his elbow. “Dodo Dupont, wizard of the ivory keys, will you take a walk with me?” He asked, grinning like a fool. 

 

“It will be my pleasure, Doctor Calligari” Dodo laughed, taking the offered arm and letting The Doctor lead her out into the park. Though she had been terrified to reunite with a man she believed would hate her, it now felt as though there was no better thing.

 

Staring in awe at the retreating couple, Bill and Amunet watched the two of them walking away. It was an outcome not one of them had expected, and though they were still not quite certain what had happened, they knew it could only get better from there.

 

After all, both The Doctor and Dodo were happy.

 

“Thank you for talking to my mother.” Amunet told Bill, smiling at the other woman. “I believe she needed it.”   
  


“Maybe, but so did The Doctor” Bill replied, the both of them grinning simultaneously.

  
Sometimes, what you truly needed was what you least of all wanted...   
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Kudos & comments please! <3


End file.
